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12 7 10 Bestebreurtje History 615 Final Project

Also, in light of the holiday season I thought I would post a picture of my parent’s house at Christmas. Yes, this is really my house. My crazy Dutch father loves ze Christmas lights ya.

In case you are interested in driving by, here is a link to a holiday blogger who features our house. http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl2.php?rate=1&xid=1015

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Final Project Rough Draft 12 2 10

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Alice Lloyd College is an institution of higher learning located in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. Alice Lloyd, a northern newspaper woman who moved to the area in search of a more favorable climate, founded the school in 1916. This college actually began as a primary school which Mrs. Lloyd opened after observing the lack of educational opportunities available to the children of Appalachia.  The school was one of the only schools in the region so students began to flock there from miles around. Lacking proper funds or facilities, Mrs. Lloyd used those resources which were available to her – the students. Students were put to work building facilities, doing chores, cooking, and cleaning. This tradition of work has lived on at Alice Lloyd College, and today all of their students work at the school and in the local community in exchange for their tuition.

This is why they were soliciting donations. “They don’t expect a handout, but they do need a helping hand” according the Joe Alan Steep, President of the college. Ordinarily I would have thrown a mailer like this out without reading it (and after reading the poorly written content of the letter, I certainly won’t be donating), but one aspect of the packet caught my attention.

The prepaid envelope with which to return donations displays a map titled “The Purpose Road.”  This map shows an island surrounded by God, the Ocean of Power, All Supply, and The Stream of Plenty. On the island you find the self as a building with good and evil at either end. This self is surrounded by a larger fence which houses social, mental, physical and spiritual responsibility.  Moving out from this zone of the self, you first have to go through the Good Lord on the Purpose Road, which is lined on all sides by pillars of service, including duty and action. Finally the end of this road map to personal and community development is world service.

Created in the 1870s by George Herbert Palmer, a professor of philosophy at Harvard, this map tracks personal development spatially.  It argues that the key for success and a purpose driven life is, first and foremost, belief in God. From there a person needs to acquire courage and self-discipline so that they can serve the greater good. This map combines religious, imaginary, and educational mapping techniques to map the steps an individual must take in order to serve the world.

Though specifics as to what one should do in order to serve, or what service really means, this map is educational in its simplicity and its incorporation of mapping to communicate a message of work, Christianity, and volunteerism.   It also demonstrates the power of maps. In the limited space within a mailer of this nature, the people of Alice Lloyd College chose to include a map because they believed it would easily and quickly communicate their world view. Perhaps it does. But I’m not going to donate to make this world view a reality.

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Left to Right: 1903 map of Georgetown, 1927 map of Georgetown. Each map shows the African American neighborhood between Wisconsin and 32nd Street, just west of Tudor Place.

In 1810 53% of Georgetown’s population was black, with 2/3 of that population living as slaves. By 1863 60% of Georgetown’s population was black, and all were free.  A portion of this large African American community lived in the free black community established along Q Street between Wisconsin and 32^nd in the 1850s. These homes were two story, brick or frame row homes which were frequently built off of main roads. These homes were known as “alley houses” and were a popular building style in the federal city amongst the African American community. “By their peak in 1900 about 3,500 alley houses existed in nearly 250 alley blocks throughout the city. The alley population was just over 19,000 people, of whom 90% were black.”[1]These alley houses were so popular not only because they were relatively easy and inexpensive to build, but also because a strong sense of community was established around alley life.

Aerial view of alley houses in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington DC, 1935.

In 1909 Charles Weller described “older folks, crowded around their doorways… calling back and forth to each other across the alley street” as he passed through the alley with trepidation.[2] For Weller, and many other white residents of Georgetown, these alley houses represented a seedy underbelly of Washington poverty. But for the African Americans who lived within them they provided community living which took place in the space between their houses.

Lacking yards, fences, and even front steps in many cases, there were few divides between the house and the alley, many alley residents did their chores outside in the alley, and set up couches and chairs outside.[3] This created a communal living space within which an African American community developed. Living off of the main road also provided these families some isolation from their white neighbors. It is because of this important sense of community that I chose to make my sketch-up of the African American alley house community in Georgetown in the somewhat less detailed monopoly house style. I wanted to make sure that you could see all of the houses as they related to one another.

Aerial view of African American community in Georgetown, 1888.

In the 1930s the location of alley dwellings became more appealing for the white residents of the city. Those alley houses which had once been described as the cause for various social ills, from illegitimacy to crime, were now seen as a great place to live.[4] One of the causes of this change was the rise of the automobile. Their location off of the beaten path of busier streets meant that they provided a safer place to park your car. It is about this time that you see rezoning in Washington DC, which pushed the African American community out of their alley homes.  In 1938 the C&O Canal was made a historic site, in 1949 Georgetown was declared a historic district, and in 1950 the Congressional “Old Georgetown Act” required all building plans to be approved through city legislation was passed.  Each of these changes created harsher zoning restrictions, increased property values, and pushed out the black residents. These alley homes were revamped, more detailed facades were added, and small yards were built where none existed before. These once scary alley homes are now some of the most desired homes in the city.

Alley houses as they look today.

In this photo, which was taken along 32^nd Street in Georgetown, you can still see the basic alley house structures shown in the Logan Court historical photo above, even though they have been renovated.

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